David Leslie Card, 43, of Nampa. Convicted for the June 5, 1988, shooting deaths of Eugene and Shirley Morey.

A story about murder

David Leslie Card was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for the June 5, 1988, shooting deaths of Eugene and Shirley Morey at a Nampa convenience store and was subsequently sentenced to death.

Witnesses at the trial said Card was frustrated after a clerk at the store scolded him, and that he left to get his gun with the apparent intention of killing the clerk. But the clerk was gone when Card returned so he walked to a parking lot nearby and killed the Moreys, who were sitting in their car folding newspapers for delivery.

At the time, 3rd District Judge Jim Doolittle called it a "cold-blooded, pitiless killing." Bruce Livingston, the attorney representing Card, said Card was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the killings and had to be medicated so that he could stand trial. Idaho is 1 of only 4 states where defendants may not plead innocent by reason of insanity, Livingston said, and be sent to a mental hospital instead of a prison.

Card has been fighting his capital punishment sentence for nearly 2 decades. But for several years he has also been refusing the medication he needs to treat schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, attorneys say, and now is so deeply entrenched in his delusions that it is unlikely he will ever again be able to assist his attorneys in future appeals. "His mental illness has rendered him presently unable to communicate rationally with his appointed counsel," U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ruled last week. "This case shall be stayed until such time as he regains competency."